I saw this young lady on Ellen today. I had to look her up. I this story doesn't get you, I would have to say you need to look at your life.

It’s just past six o’clock when 11-year-old Michala Riggle plops down in a chair in my office. Her long strawberry-blonde hair hangs over her shoulders, framing the rhinestone “Believe” pin she wears over her heart. If you are not a believer when you sit down with this child, chances are you will be before you walk away.

It is already dark outside the office of Kentucky Monthly and, knowing that Michala and her parents, David and Emlyn, have not stopped for dinner, I suggest we eat before starting our interview. But Michala quickly reminds me that it’s a school night and she’s here to talk business. Her mom smiles and I can see where Michala has inherited her strength.

The business that brought this family to my office started just six months ago when Michala, a fifth-grader at Jeffersontown Elementary, dropped a change purse with $7 on the kitchen table in front of her parents.

The couple had been discussing the experimental treatments for autism their 7-year-old son, Evan, had been undergoing since February. Before receiving the IV infusions of glutathione, Evan was combative and needed speech therapy. Inspired by the improvements in Evan’s behavior since beginning the treatments of glutathione, the Riggles hoped the treatment would become available to other families with autistic children. Unfortunately, beginning a controlled study would cost the Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville, where Evan received his treatments, nearly $200,000.

Overhearing the conversation, Michala decided to do whatever she could to see other children with autism benefit as her own brother had. She scraped her allowance together and offered it to her parents, saying, “I know it isn’t enough, but I hope it helps.”

She didn’t stop there. Determined to raise the $200,000 needed to start the study, she began beading bracelets, a skill she learned from a friend. “She was going door-to-door selling these little bracelets then coming in and beading more. We thought what she was doing was sweet, but we never imagined she would take it this far,” says David.

Neither did Michala’s 9-year-old brother, Dawson, who was recruited to make bracelets for the cause. “He told me there was no way we’d raise all that money selling the bracelets. I told him he had to think of it like a baseball game—if you go in thinking you’re going to lose, you’re beat. You’ve got to believe,” says Michala. “So that’s my motto: you’ve got to believe.”

Her $7 began to multiply, and everyone but Michala was surprised. “We learned in Sunday school that Jesus was able to feed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish that a little boy gave him,” she says. “I’m kind of like that boy, I guess. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I wanted to help.” As she speaks, I have to look up from my notebook to remind myself that these words are coming from a freckle-faced 11-year-old sitting with one leg folded underneath her.

Within a few weeks of telling her parents that she would raise the money, Michala marched into the office of Dr. Stephen Wright, Kosair medical director, and proudly slid an envelope stuffed with $29, her first donation, across his desk. “I immediately went over to our foundation and said, ‘We’ve just started the Michala Riggle Glutathione Research Fund, and here’s $29 to get it started,” says Wright.

Michala first sold her bracelets to neighbors and classmates, but her sales dramatically increased after Kosair donated booth space at Jeffersontown’s Gaslight Festival, a move that sparked the interest of the local news stations.

After the first wave of media attention, Michala and her parents enlisted the help of family and friends to prepare for the St. James Court Art Festival, where Kosair had donated another booth, hoping that the recent news reports would bring a crowd.

For three days, Michala and her “peeps,” as she calls them, took money and passed out bracelets to people eager to meet the little girl with such high hopes. “There was a line just to get into the tent,” says Emlyn. “It really was like the miracle of loaves and fish; we just kept reaching into the bags and pulling out bracelets. I kept thinking that we were going to run out, but that didn’t happen,” she says, smiling. That weekend, Michala and her team raised nearly $11,000.

Michala’s infectious hope started to spread. “People started donating bracelets that they made with their team or church group,” says David. “We thought that we may get one or two donations like that, but it seems like we are getting more everyday. It’s just incredible how people have opened their hearts.”

They also started receiving invitations to appear at craft shows and festivals throughout the state. “She never turned down an opportunity to sell the bracelets,” says Emlyn. That is, until they got an invitation to set up at an Expo in Brandenburg.

“She was supposed to go to the UofL vs. Pittsburgh game with her dad that day, so we told them we would set up the booth but Michala wouldn’t be there. They were disappointed, but that game was so important to Michala,” says Emlyn.

In a strange twist of fate, the person who was supposed to give David tickets to the game had forgotten and given them to someone else.

“She is a huge UofL fan, and we had never had the opportunity to take her to a game before, so she was really excited,” says David. “She was sad for a few minutes, but then she perked up and said she’d just go sell her bracelets.”

Emlyn and Michala packed the car and headed to Brandenburg early the next morning. While at the expo, Michala met the trustees of the Ephraim and Wilma Shaw Roseman Foundation, who were impressed by her passion. “They said they were planning on donating $10,000, but I never expected anything more than that,” says Michala.

Little did she know her dream was about to become a reality. After their chance meeting with Michala at the expo in Brandenburg, the trustees were inspired to throw their weight behind Beading to Beat Autism.

“The trustees called us and asked how much Michala had raised up until that point, and we told them she was just sitting at $101,000,” says Leslie Buddeke, the director of major gifts for the Children’s Hospital Foundation. “Then they asked us to set up a check presentation. They were so impressed with Michala.”

On Dec. 2, friends and family of Michala gathered at the check presentation at Kosair. “We all knew how much the check was going to be, but Dr. Wright wanted to make sure it was a surprise for Michala,” says Emlyn. “He said that she had surprised him every week with a check and that this was his opportunity to surprise her.”

When Michala pulled back the brown paper on the check, revealing a few more zeros than she expected—$100,000—her eyes filled with tears. “I was just so excited,” she says. “I couldn’t have done it without all the people who helped me. I would have been beading in my sleep to raise the money.”

With the money raised by Michala, physicians at Kosair plan to begin their study on glutathione sometime this year. As for Michala, she has her eye on a new goal. “We raised enough to get the program started, but now we want to keep it going,” she says.

Within days of receiving the more than generous donation that helped her reach her goal, Michala’s story aired on Good Morning America. “The phone has been ringing off the hook,” says Emlyn. “We are so blessed, but this has all been kind of a whirlwind.”

Michala is flattered by the attention. “I had to take a note to one of the third-grade teachers the other day, and all of the students turned around in their desk and started whispering,” she says. “You would have thought I was Hannah Montana or something.”

This experience and her natural philanthropic talents have changed Michala’s career plans indefinitely. “I used to dream of playing for UofL, but I think they’ve lost me now,” she says, grinning from ear to ear.

“We’ve all learned a lot from this experience,” says Emlyn. “I’ve learned you can never underestimate the dreams of a child, and I’ve learned through raising a child with special needs that you just have to surrender to God.”

Michala also credits her faith for her success. “Mom let me go to the grown-up service at church one weekend and I heard Greg Allen, the music leader at our church, say that he thought he’d never be able to sing again after having a surgery on his throat. He said he kept praying and telling God that He needed him to be able to sing, but God told him that He didn’t need Greg to sing—He chose him to sing. I feel the same way,” she says. “God chose me to do this.”

I believe her.

Michala is Kentucky Monthly's Kentuckian of the Year. best choice I have seensince I started reading that magazine and I always think they make great choices.

The article was written by Amanda Hervey and I hope she doesn't mind that I copied her work.

If ou would like to donate to Michala's cause you can do that here at the

Michala Riggle Foundation

God Bless Michala!